HAVANA, Oct 13 (Reuters) - A diminished
Hurricane Paula weakened further on Wednesday as it crept nearer to western
Cuba on a path toward the country's tobacco-growing region and eventually
Havana.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said
top winds of the Category 1 storm -- the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson
intensity scale -- had dropped to 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and extended
just 10 miles (20 km) from the eye.

Its center was 30 miles (45 km) west
of Cuba's westernmost province, Pinar del Rio, where landfall was expected
on Thursday as the storm drifted north-northeast through the Yucatan Channel
at 3 mph (6 kph), the Miami-based center said in its latest advisory.

It said Paula was destined to become
a tropical storm, which has winds between 39 and 73 mph ((63 to 117 kph),
on Thursday and "degenerate to a remnant low within a couple of days."

Intermittently heavy rains and winds
up to 37 mph (61 kph) were reported along the coast and expected to filter
inland overnight. A storm surge up to 4 feet (1.2 metres) was forecast.

The hurricane center said the storm could
dump 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) of rain, with up to 10 inches (25 cm)
possible in mountainous areas.

Local officials said freshly planted
fields of Pinar del Rio's prized tobacco, from which world-famous Cuban
cigars are made, had been protected and leaves from the previous harvest
safely stored.

Officials were encouraging but not yet
ordering residents of low-lying areas to move to higher ground in case
of flooding.

Earlier in the day, Paula, the 16th named
storm of the busy 2010 Atlantic season and the ninth hurricane, grazed
Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula but inflicted little damage to the tourist resorts
on the country's Caribbean coast.

NO EFFECT ON GULF OIL FIELDS

The hurricane did not affect any of Mexico's
main offshore oil-producing regions in the Gulf of Mexico and was not expected
to move into the U.S. oil and gas fields in the Gulf.

The storm, which had 100-mph (160-kph)
winds at its peak, was in warm waters normally hospitable for hurricanes,
but wind shear was sapping its strength, forecasters said.

The Miami-based hurricane center said
Paula was on a path to hit Havana by early on Friday and posted tropical
storm warnings for the scenic but crumbling city where high winds and heavy
rains routinely topple decaying buildings.

Cuba suffers few deaths from hurricanes
because evacuations are mandatory and efficiently executed.

The Cuban weather service said it expected
the storm to be just a tropical depression by the time it reached Havana
and would bring much-needed rain to western Cuba.

The island has still not fully recovered
from three powerful hurricanes that struck in 2008, causing $10 billion
in damage and dealt a serious blow to the country's fragile economy.

Many people were moving refrigerators
and other valuables out of harm's way because memories of 2008 were fresh
in their minds, said Jesus Bacallao, 69, a resident of the tobacco-growing
town of San Juan y Martinez.

"With these things, you never know,"
he said. "In the 2008 storms, several tobacco barns were knocked over
and we still haven't forgotten the fear we felt."

Cuban television said the local banana
harvest had been speeded up and livestock moved to safe areas. Pinar del
Rio is not a big sugar-producing region on the island.

A tropical storm watch also was issued
for part of the Florida Keys, 90 miles (145 km) north of Cuba.

Paula, which formed off the coast of
Honduras on Monday, spared Central America's coffee-growing region, battered
this year by heavy rains. (Additional reporting by Esteban Israel in Pinar
del Rio, Nelson Acosta in Havana and Isela Serrano in Cancun; Editing by
Peter Cooney)